RADIO MUSIC SOCIETY — CHRIS LUMAIN

Pop Music in String Quartets

Radio Music Society is a string ensemble-based music group that I formed with my twin brother in 2012 at the University of Virginia.

We weren't good enough for the symphony and didn't want to play "classical" music, so we started writing string quartet versions of our favorite pop hits and a different kind of music group was born.

The (Pop) Music

There aren't a whole lot of arrangements of popular music for string quartet that are of this decade.  In order to play, we learned to how arrange all the music ourselves. Top 40 hits, alternative, rock - basically anything with a melody was fair game. And we encouraged every member to arrange to grow the library.

Distinctive Concert Branding

And of course, visuals still took center stage. Each concert served as an opportunity for a unique theme that helped shape the group’s presence at the university as more than just stuffy symphony musicians.

Complete with themed photo shoots based on musical plays on words (that was a rule) and comped imagery, we had built social campaigns to promote each event.